The second season follows Reddington's war with The Cabal, a shadowy multinational group that holds positions of influence in government and business, over The Fulcrum, a digital repository of information about The Cabal's illegal activities that both parties want. The season introduces Samar Navabi (Mozhan Marnò), a former agent of the Mossad and new member of the Task Force with a connection to Reddington. The first part of the season sees the resolution of Red's conflict with Milos Kirchoff, AKA Berlin. The second half of the season introduces a new series antagonist Peter Kotsiopulos (David Strathairn), the ruthless Director of the National Clandestine Service (AKA The Director) and a key member of The Cabal, who seeks possession of The Fulcrum at any cost. The season also follows Elizabeth Keen's investigation into Tom's double life and the subsequent breakup of their marriage. Liz ends up being tried over her involvement in a murder committed by Tom and the subsequent cover up. Ultimately Liz and Tom reconcile but Liz ends up on the run from the FBI and the Task Force after killing Tom Connolly (Reed Birney), the U. S. Attorney General and secret member of The Cabal.
While continuing his battle with Berlin, Red receives intelligence from a Cameroonian warlord that a person named "Lord Baltimore", an information broker, hired a bounty hunter to kill him. Meanwhile, Liz goes through the process of annulling her marriage with Tom, and is unknowingly under surveillance by an unknown party. During the investigation into Lord Baltimore, the task force questions Rowan Mills, a supposed victim. Further investigation into Mills reveals she is actually Rowan's twin sister, Nora, a covert operative who suffers from an engineered dissociative identity disorder, and is also the actual Lord Baltimore. Red learns after a brief period in the captivity of Mossad agent Samar Navabi that Baltimore's intended target is his ex-wife, Naomi Hyland. Liz attempts to evacuate Naomi, but her team is ambushed by a kidnapping group led by Mills. While Liz successfully captures Mills, Red attempts to rescue Naomi at a designated apartment only to find a locket instead. Red later receives a package with a cell phone provided by Berlin, who taunts him that Naomi will be sent to Red "piece by piece", proving this when Red finds a finger in the package. After comtemplating reirement following an unknown diagnosis, Cooper returns to his role as the Task Force's director after a visit from Red.
24
2
"Monarch Douglas Bank"
No. 112
Paul Edwards
Kristen Reidel & Amanda Kate Shuman & Daniel Knauf
The FBI is alerted by Red to a robbery at the Monarch Douglas Bank in Warsaw, Poland, which they investigate since its U.S. headquarters are under FBI jurisdiction. The FBI believes that the records of transactions made by Monarch's criminal cleints were the robbers' target. However, they soon discover the robbery was a cover for the kidnapping of employee Kaja Tomczak. Liz and Ressler locate Kaja, who reveals that all of the bank's transaction records are stored in her head via her photographic memory. A tactical team is sent out after them by the bank, whose leader works with Berlin, though the three are aided by the arrival of Samar, who is there under Red's orders. After they escape, Red arrives and dispatches Kaja to his plane, now in possession of all of Berlin's money. Meeting Berlin for the first time at a pier, Red blackmails him with the return of his money in exchange for the safe return of Naomi. Liz later finds Kaja and nearly has the accounts frozen, but relents and allows the codes to the accounts to be traded by Red for Naomi after Red refuses to call off the deal. The next day, Cooper meets Samar in a park to review her file on Red, facilitating her recruitment into the task force.
Dr. James Covington is a disgraced surgeon running an illegal organ transplant business for criminals, who are extorted under threat of having the organ forcibly taken back from their bodies. With the aid of a recruited Samar, the Task Force starts investigating one of Covington's recent victims, Paul Wyatt. The investigation into Wyatt leads the Task Force to a medical examiner who supplies Covington with recently harvested organs. With the aid of the medical examiner, Liz and Ressler attempt to tail a courier responsible for transporting a heart transplant, only for the courier to die during the pursuit. Liz and Ressler come across an underground hospital utilized by Covington, attempting to arrest him. Liz and Ressler delay their arrest after being persuaded by Covington to finish a surgery on a young boy. Meanwhile, Red meets with his business contacts involved with international shipping in order to outmaneuver Berlin by bidding on an Indonesian port. One of the contacts, Niko, attempts to double-cross Red in order to serve under Berlin's employment. Unbeknownst to Niko, a double agent secretly working for Red exposes Niko during the course of an attempted betrayal, prompting Red to kill Niko. During the aftermath, Liz has a brief conversation with Samar about her mistrust. Samar validates Liz's claims, and is later warned that her recruitment is part of Red's machinations. Meanwhile, Red and Dembe drive to a remote cabin where Naomi is staying, only for Naomi to slap Red.
Red asks Naomi for information about their daughter Jennifer and makes preparations to relocate Naomi and her husband, Frank. After being rebuffed by Naomi, Red blackmails Frank with knowledge of his secret mistress into starting his life over with Naomi. Meanwhile, the Task Force is directed by Red into investigating a spike of apparent "random violent crimes", with all of the listed suspects being civilians with no prior criminal records, having been manipulated to violently act out at their breaking point. Cooper directs the Task Force into investigating black operations budgets funding mind control projects. Utilizing a codebreaker suggested by Samar, Red and Liz bring a heavily redacted report given by Senator Sheridan for decoding. The decoding of the documents leads the Task Force into identifying social psychologist Dr. Linus Creel. Creel had been engineering the violent acts in order to publish his research regarding genetic screening, going far enough to martyr himself. The Task Force apprehends a college student attempting to kill Creel, only for Liz to be held hostage by Creel. During the stand-off, a sniper in Red's employment kills Creel, having been revealed as Liz's motel neighbor. Liz heads to the remote cabin where Naomi is staying and attempts to question her about her past with Red to no avail. It also becomes clear Naomi knows the connection between Liz and Red. Before leaving, Naomi reveals privately to Red that Jennifer left on her own accord. Liz is shown contemplating a locked door with a ring of keys in her hand.
Maddox Beck, an eco-terrorist, steals an ancient clay painting from his pregnant wife, who is mortally wounded in the process. The painting reveals a map to the location of a dormant pneumonic plague virus. Beck successfully recovers the virus and weaponizes it to inoculate his followers and create a world-wide epidemic. The Task Force contains most of the followers, but Samar and Liz are infected by one of them at Dulles International Airport. With Aram's help, Red learns Beck's location and steals a supply of synthesized vaccine, as well as a necklace and a key, before leaving Beck to commit suicide. The vaccine is delivered to the Task Force for distribution to infected agents and civilians, with Liz and Samar being among those cured. Meanwhile, Red covertly keeps an eye on a women named Zoe D'Antonio (Scottie Thompson), who is apparently critical to his plan to end his war with Berlin. Having failed to convince Red to remove the guard he assigned to her, Liz pays a look-alike to distract the guard while she secretly visits a basement at an undisclosed location.
In the mid-1980s, a young African boy witnesses his family get massacred by a group of poachers before getting kidnapped by the same group in Sierra Leone. In present day Paris, a poacher is kidnapped and his skinned body washes up at a remote location in Kamchatka, Russia. Red identifies the man as a member of the Mombasa Cartel, responsible for poaching endangered wildlife as well as attacks against rival poaching organizations. After getting a lead from Geoff Perl (Peter Fonda), a billionaire conservationist, the Task Force arrests one of the Mombasa Cartel's business partners for further information to little effect. When attempted surveillance on the business partner has failed, a drug-addicted Ressler heads to a remote cabin in Sitka, Alaska following another lead, only for him to be held prisoner by a small family responsible for kidnapping the poachers, who are hunteda nd killed and their taxidermied by the family's youngest son. While Liz and Samar lead a Hostage Rescue Team to rescue Ressler and neitrilize the suspects, Red confronts the mastermind behind both the family's activities and the Mombasa Cartel - Perl. Red gets a list of the Mombasa Cartel members from Perl before killing him for having ruined Dembe's life, revealing him to be the young boy from the 80s whose family were murdered under Perl's orders. During the aftermath, Red interacts with Zoe, and it is revealed that Liz had held an alive Tom prisoner in a remote cell for an undisclosed amount of time.
After Samar kills a top Iranian nuclear scientist on a Mossad mission in Dubai, the Iranian government plans retaliation by sending The Scimitar, an Iranian agent who is apparently responsible for the death of Samar's brother, to kidnap American scientists involved in a nuclear weapons program. While the Task Force foils the kidnapping, Samar, with the aid of Red interrogates the Scimitar by herself, and is told that her brother was also in league with him. Not believing the Scimitar's claims, Samar executes him and allows his body to be found by the Task Force. Meanwhile, Liz uses the intel received from Tom to help Red get a meeting with Berlin. Kidnapping Zoe, he brings her to Berlin and reveals that she is actually his long-believed-dead daughter.
Four months ago, Liz shoots Tom and lies to Red about his death. Instead, she keeps him in chains on a boat. She interrogates him for months about people on The Blacklist. In the present, Zoe says that a man named The Decembrist helped her flee the Soviet Union after the Kursk bombing which her father, whose real name is Milos Kirchoff, was imprisoned for. Surmising the Decembrist framed him for the bombing and set Berlin against him, Red asks Liz to track down the Decembrist in return for Berlin's whereabouts. The FBI's investigation leads to the Russian finance minister, Kiryl Morozov, so Red and Berlin head to Russia to interrogate him. He points them to Alan Fitch, the Assistant Director of National Intelligence, as the person responsible for the bombing. Red meets with Alan and warns him about Berlin. Meanwhile, a harbormaster finds Tom on the boat and Tom kills him despite Keen's attempts to stop him. Red tells Liz that he knows about Tom; he expresses his disappointment and asks her to interrogate him about Berlin because he kidnapped Fitch. Tom agrees to help but only if she releases him. FBI finds Fitch tied up with a bomb around his neck. Meanwhile, Berlin is betrayed by Zoe, who gives him over to Red in return for his help in dissapearing again. Fitch asks to speak with Red and sends the bomb squad away once he realises it can't be stopped. Fitch asks Red if he has "the Fulcrum" and tells Red the combination to a St. Petersburg safe, but the bomb explodes before he can reveal the safe's location. Later, Red and Berlin share a drink while Berlin reminisces about better times during the Cold War. When he's finished, Red murders him. Later, Red hands an envelope to Tom, ordering him never to see Liz again. As he is leaving, Tom tells Red that he never told her about them.
Red is arrested and placed in "The Factory", an high-security prison in the middle of the Bering Sea. Red twice offers bribes to a prison guard, the first to see the warden and the next to escape, since Red knows that Factory inmate Luther Braxton is going to escape and wreak havoc and drastically threaten Red's interests and life. Cooper meets with high-level NCS members Kat Goodson and her unnamed superior, who has replaced Fitch as the NCS's director. They inform Cooper of the situation, prompting him to dispatch Liz, Ressler and Navabi to the Factory to extract Red. Meanwhile, Braxton cleverly breaks out of his cell and assembles a team of criminals. The three FBI agents are ambushed by Braxton's men upon arrival, with Ressler and Samar being captured while Liz is able to escape. Liz reunites with Red, who explains that he planned his arrest to stop Braxton from obtaining "The Fulcrum", a data file containing highly confidential and compromising information on very powerful and important people. The Fulcrum is not physically in the prison, but access to all real-time USA intelligence information is available there. Braxton intends to get the code needed to access the Factory's servers, which Goodson is determined to prevent. The FBI attempts to negotiate with Braxton, who responds by executing the warden and threatening to have Samar hanged. Cooper reluctantly gives the code to Braxton, whose men then go to the servers and gain access to the secret intelligence system. Red and Liz work together to increase the pressure in the boilers until an explosion occurs, incapacitating Red and causing Braxton to lose the server connection. Liz unsuccessfully attempts to resuscitate Red and ends up getting captured and taken to Braxton. Elsewhere, the NCS director is urged by his coworkers to have Braxton and Red eliminated, and orders Goodson to order an air strike on the facility. Red wakes up and makes his way through the wild prison inmates until he arrives at Braxton's location, shoots his men down and subdues him. Braxton begins to explain that he knows about Red and Liz's history in the house fire, how Red "came for Liz" and that Liz is "the one". Red urges Liz to shoot Braxton, but the missile strike hits the prison first.
NOTE: This episode premiered after Super Bowl XLIX, generating the highest number of views for a Blacklist episode.
32
10
"Luther Braxton Conclusion"
No. 21
Michael Watkins
Teleplay by: Mike Ostrowski & Jim Campolongo Story by: Kristen Reidel & Vincent Angell
Following the missile explosion at the prison, Red, Ressler and Samar escape safely. Braxton captures Liz, taking her to a hospital in Alaska to be tortured for information on the location of the Fulcrum, which he believes is located inside the mind of her child self. Braxton kidnaps the child of one Dr. Selma Orchard to coerce her into performing a "memory recovery operation" on Liz while she is sedated. While Liz experiences multiple memory cycles, Red captures Braxton and arrives with the other agents to recover Liz. Liz learns that Red was there at her home to recover the Fulcrum, and rescued her from the fire while her parents died in the chaos. She angrily tells Red that his fatherly concern for her is an act he needs to drop. Red later meets with the NCS director next to Braxton's hanged corpse, claiming to have custody of the Fulcrum. The director calls Red's bluff and states that he isn't afraid of him. At her apartment, Liz goes through her personal effects and finds a strange device inside her childhood stuffed rabbit. Orchard later meets with Liz, telling her the events she recalled in the memory recovery are likely correct, but the roles of the people involved may not be.
Red, Liz and Ressler travel to Uzbekistan to investigate separatist leader Ruslan Denisov, who is holding multiple American hostages captive. Denisov, an old associate of Red's, is targeting members of a company that is refusing to replace a pipeline, whose leaking water is poisoning civilians. After unsuccessful attempts to negotiate with Denisov, Red works with him to capture a former Russian business associate of the company's and uses his knowledge to blackmail them into repairing the pipeline. The CIA, however, have one of their agents in Denisov's custody and attempt to employ an Uzbek general to eliminate Denisov. Cooper confronts the CIA handler and the mission is called off. Red captures the general and assures Denisov that he has helped his country, and despite potential consequences he will emerge a hero. Meanwhile, Metro PD Detective Martin Wilcox begins investigating the murder of Eugene Ames, the harbormaster who was killed by Tom. He finds the Samoan (the bodyguard hired by Liz to hold Tom captive and who physically restrained her from stopping Ames' murder) and begins investigating him. The Samoan leads him to Ames' body and agrees to talk about Liz. Elsewhere, Liz asks Aram to determine the nature of the strange item she found in her stuffed rabbit. Aram later says he can only identify it as some kind of recording device.
The Task Force investigate a family of polygamous cultists known as "The Church of the Shield" whose land also doubles as a storage facility for criminals. The cult has been attacked by an unseen enemy, who slaughter all the adults and steal the weapons stored on the property, while also kidnapping Justin Kenyon, the cult's leader, who they later kill. Afterwards, a series of vans, filled with explosives, appear near D.C., being manned by children. Liz and Ressler are kidnapped by the same people who attacked the cult, who turn out to be boys that Justin had thrown out into the wilderness to die and who have banded together under the leadership of David, Justin's son. Liz and Ressler are later saved by the FBI, who have managed to track them with Red's help, resulting in the death of David. Cooper receives a job offer to become a director of the FBI, but turns it down because of his illness and focuses on trying to get into a clinical trial, which he is denied. Red teams up with a Glen, a DMV contact and skiptracer, to track down the contents of Fitch's safe in St. Petersburg. The pair arrive to find a card with a telephone number, which Red cannot trace. Cooper finds out that he has been accepted as an 'extra' for the trial, thanks to his friend Thomas Connolly, who has powerful connections. Red goes back to the Kenyon compound, which houses a secret bunker, and retrives a silver case from an old presidential limousine. Red then calls the number, which is answered by a mysterious man.
The FBI team tracks down a serial killer nicknamed "The Deer Hunter", who has been on a killing spree for nearly twelve years. Detective Wilcox continues to question the Samoan about the harbormaster's murder, with the Samoan agreeing to falsely testify that Liz killed Ames in return for immunity. The mysterious caller sets up a meeting with Red. He and Liz agree to a deal that he will help bring down The Deer Hunter in exchange for the Fulcurm. The Deer Hunter turns out to be the murdered husband of Tracy Solobotkin (Amanda Plummer), who is an employee in an organization that helps battered women. Kidnapping Liz, she reveals that she killed her husband in self-defense and decided to continue his legacy in the form of killing men who hurt other women. Liz manages to choke her into unconsciousness, just as Ressler and the task force arrive. Red finds out about the Samoan's deal with Wilcox and bribes him to recant his statement. As this falls on the same exact time as the intended meeting with the mystery caller, he sends Dembe instead, which angers the mystery caller who calls off the meeting. Red later manages to trace the mystery man's location, but only finds the cell phone he was using and blood on the floor. He meets with Liz to inform her of his deal with The Samoan, but she refuses to hand him the Fulcrum without him telling her about it first. Red calls her out for being afraid that he would lose all interest in her if she gave it to him.
Red reveals the next blacklister to be the infamous King family, who, for 200 years, have been under the guise of being investors and businessmen; their real business, however, has been running underground auctions where the products sold ranged from stolen paintings to high profile kidnapping victims. When they kidnap Red using Madeline Pratt as bait, Liz uses the identity of a proxy from an infamous Russian art collector with an interest in stolen paintings, and infiltrates the auction to retrieve Red and shut down the Kings' business. Red is bought by the Cameroonian warlord he crossed months earlier who intends to kill him to claim a bounty on Red's head. However, Liz saves Red and they confront the King patriach who Red kills while the man's sons are arrested. Cooper begins to have reservations about trading favours with Connolly after he tricks Cooper into helping a man flee an indictment Meanwhile, Tom realizes that he has been missing Liz, and calls her before taking an undercover job in Germany as a neo-Nazi named Christof Mannheim.
Liz is accused of Ames' murder, so Red tasks a search party to find Tom so that they can clear Liz's name. Seeking the Major, the man who trained Tom as an operative, Red has the task force abduct a Malaysian diplomat, who can connect Red to the Major. Meanwhile, Tom goes undercover in Germany. Judge Denner (John Finn), who is overseeing the inquiry against Liz, is asked by Deputy Attorney General Reven Wright to quash the District Attorney's subpoena against Liz due to her work with the task force being a matter of national security, but Denner, who harbors prejudice against the federal government for its acts of secrecy, instead rules on conducting an interview with Liz to determine if there is sufficient evidence to quash the Grand Jury indictment. Under oath, Liz tells Denner in camera what has happened over the past 18 months, but he does not believe her claims that she was acting under the Task Force's officla purview when Ames was killed, a lie that Cooper perjures himself to maintain. Wilcox locates the bullet that Liz shot the Samoan with during their struggle, which he presents to Denner as proof that she lied to him under oath and is Ames' murderer.
38
16
"Tom Keen"
No. 7
Andrew McCarthy
Teleplay by: Lukas Reiter & J. R. Orci Story by: J. R. Orci & Lukas Reiter & Jon Bokenkamp & John Eisendrath
In light of the evidence against her, Denner pushes forward an indictment for murder and perjury for Liz. In order to reach Tom, Red and Ressler sabotage an arms deal and kill Tom's assigned group, telling him to confess to his murder of the harbormaster. Meanwhile, Cooper, who angrily confides to Liz about the perjury, has a seizure and is rushed to the hospital. Liz later finds out from Cooper's wife that he has a brain tumor and has at most a year to live. Tom comes to the courtroom and confesses to the murder, attempting to make a deal for Liz to be free from prosecution, though Denner still intends to charge her for other crimes. However, Tom Connolly, in line to become the next Attorney General, intervenes, forcing Denner to comply with the Justice Department's request to drop the charges in exchange for avoiding arrest himself for exceeding his authority by forcing Liz and Cooper to divulge national secrets that he was not cleared to hear. When asked by Liz about Tom, Connolly states that there is no "Tom Keen" in custody. Feeling guilty about her role in Ames' death, Liz attempts to open up a scholarship for his daughter, but Red dissuades her by alluding to his own expereinces with Liz that it won`t ever be enough to make up for taking the girl's father from her. Later, Tom calls Liz and asks her if she is okay.
After a state trooper is shot and killed when he stops a truck revealed to have several experimented-on human corpses in it, Red reveals the next blacklister to be Roger Hobbs. Hobbs is a billionaire tech mogul whose fascination with immortality led him to develop and fund a research team for just that purpose. Leading the research is Dr. Julian Powell, a scientist who has been injecting the cells of an extremely unique jellyfish species into humans in order to hopefully force their cells to regenerate. While Liz and Red go after Powell, who commits suicide when confronted by Red, Hobbs is persuaded by Red to support him in his battle against the Cabal. Meanwhile, the Major decides Tom's love for Liz has clouded his judgment and made him a liability, and he plans to have Tom executed. Before this comes to fruition, however, the Germans that Tom had been trying to infiltrate now intervene and capture them both for interrogation. As both are being tortured, one of the Germans then pulls a photo of Liz out of Tom's wallet and threatens to harm her instead. But when Tom says Liz is FBI, the leader of the German group decides that attracting the attention of the FBI would be a greater risk than letting Tom go. Having nowhere to go, Tom heads to Liz's home.
Vanessa Cruz, a vengeful widow of a broker turned whistleblower, has been attacking businessmen by committing crimes and framing them for it under the guise of "corporate wrongdoing", all as part of a revenge plan against the businessmen who killed her husband. Meanwhile, Red attempts to sow seeds of dissent within the Cabal's ranks in order to depose The Director with Hobbs' help. However, Hobbs' betrayal is discovered by the Director and he is executed. Tom asks Liz for help for recovering his passports, but is initially rebuffed. Running into an obstacle in the investigation of Cruz, Liz turns to Tom for help in finding Cruz in exchange for the return of his passports. While the Task Force manages to foil Cruz's assassination attempt on her husband's last remaining killer, Cruz escapes, and is approached by Mr. Kaplan for recruitment into Red's fold. During the aftermath, Tom discloses to Liz the truth behind his relationship with Red, revealing that it was Red that initially hired him to enter her life before their falling out forced him to switch to Berlin's side. A disgusted Liz approaches Red with the fulcrum, attempting to cut her ties with him, only for an unknown sniper to wound Red.
Liz and Dembe spring into action to save a lung-shot Red and immediately take him to an enclosed location to treat him. Red regains consciousness and tells Liz to talk to Leonard Caul, who might have an idea about the final operating piece needed to unlock the Fulcrum. Liz finds Caul and it is revealed that the Fulcrum is a collection of information regarding political assassinations and terrorism for which the Cabal is responsible. Liz narrowly stops the Director's assassination mission on Red by blackmailing him with the Fulcrum. The Director warns her about the powerful enemies she has now made while also mentioning to having known her mother. In the aftermath, Connolly ends up having a seat within the Director's Cabal, after having leaked information about Red's whereabouts to the Cabal. Liz, frustrated with Red's scheming which put Tom in her life, asks Tom about what he knows about Red.
After decoding the information embedded in the Fulcrum, Red is determined to stop the imminent threat they pose. With Samar's help, he learns that they plan to target a defense installation. Meanwhile, the task force discovers that deceased bodies of Chinese-American women are being smuggled out of the country under false identities by a man who is also briging in a shipment pivotal to their upcoming attack. Liz continues to search for answers about her past after discovering a picture hidden in Red's secret flat. After Liz and Tom unsuccessfully interrogate former associates of Berlin, Liz discovers that Red had already threatened them to keep them from telling. Liz goes back to Red's flat, knowing that it was Red had been watching her and knew she would return. Ultimately, Red tells Liz that the women in the pictire is her mother, Katerina Rostova, a legendary KGB agent and that Liz's real name is Masha. The smuggler, Quon Zhang, reveals that he was hired to smuggle a Cabal agent, known only as Karakurt, into the country.
The task force investigates a Russian Blacklister code-named "Karakurt" who has been recruited by the Cabal to start a new Cold War. Karakurt's plans are to bomb a defence facility and to assassinate an anti-Russian U.S. Senator with a custom made viral weapon. Elsewhere, Tom tries to mend things with Liz. In a race against time, Liz and Ressler fail to stop the bombing but they were successful in intercepting the Senator. However, the Senator is hospitalised because the disease carrier turns out to be Liz, who had been infected by Karakurt's accomplice, Dr. Leo Andropov, after Connolly, now the Attorney General, forced Cooper to send her into an ambush. It is then revealed that Liz is being set up by the Cabal who want her neutralized as a threat due to knowing about the Fulcrum.
Elizabeth is framed for the assassination of a U.S. Senator and is now on the run with Red's help. The Attorney General, Tom Connolly, forces Cooper on administrative leave for keeping Keen from being questioned. Liz is captured for questioning, but later escapes with the help of Reddington and Cooper. Angered at Reddington for refusing to tell the truth about her mother, Elizabeth seeks Tom's assistance, and the two eventually give in to their romantic feelings for each other. Meanwhile, Red brings together the world's leading investigative journalists and reveals the Fulcrum's contents to publicly expose the Cabal. Through Elizabeth, Cooper discovers that he never had cancer; his diagnosis was a hoax orchestrated by the Cabal through Connolly. Cooper angrily confronts Connolly together with Elizabeth. Connolly defensively threatens to brand the Task Force as a rogue unit and have it disbanded, then prosecute its members on politically motivated charges. Elizabeth snaps and fatally shoots him. The shooting triggers her memory of the night of the fire: she shot and killed her abusive father in order to protect her mother. Elizabeth escapes police capture with Reddington's help, and confesses to having regained her memory, as well as her full understanding of Reddington's desire to protect her. They both escape, while Tom leaves in his boat. Reven Wright appoints Ressler as the new director of the task force, while Cooper hands in his badge and is questioned for Connolly's murder. Elizabeth's name is put next to Reddington's on the FBI Ten Most Wanted list.
↑The episode was initially titled "Masha Rostova",[25] before being renamed "Tom Connolly".[26][27]
Reception
The second season of The Blacklist received positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an 83% approval score based on 18 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The consensus reads: "Though The Blacklist flirts with narrative overload, it's held together by James Spader's scenery-eating performance and wildly entertaining action".[29]
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